An Angel's Touch
by maggs.x3
Summary: A lonely Christmas Eve turns into something much more as Troy helps Gabriella to come to the realization that someone truly does love her for her. Troyella oneshot. Rated M for a reason!


**An Angel's Touch  
**

**Author's Note**: _I've been trying to come up with a good idea for a oneshot, and this is the best one I've come up with so far. It was inspired by and loosely based off of another story I've read on here, and hopefully I'm not offending that author by posting this. (:_

It was Christmas Eve, and as usual, Gabriella Montez was going to spend it alone. Her mother always went to visit her family for the holidays, a family which Gabriella refused to be a part of. She'd always hated her mother's family. They'd never accepted the fact that Maria, the only good girl out of five cousins, had become a single mother at the age of eighteen, and therefore had disowned the child. Gabriella had been named after her maternal grandmother, but she felt no ties to her namesake at all. In fact, it was one of many things about herself that she hated. She also had a great dislike for her ethnicity; she'd always wished that she had been born with the porcelain skin that all of her friends had been blessed with. Instead, she had been born with olive-colored skin. She hated the color of her hair and eyes. She wanted strawberry blonde curls with bright blue eyes, not the dirty brown she'd inherited from her mother's family. She hated looking in the mirror; each time she did, she saw her mother. She didn't see the sweet, independent girl that she longed to be. And for that reason, she'd become a rebellious child. She never went to anything her mother wanted her to go to. She'd taken up dancing instead of piano, sleeping instead of studying, and she preferred volleyball over horseback riding. She'd tried smoking, but had decided to quit because of her asthma. She occasionally went to parties, where she would drink and hook up with random guys. She was everything her mother hadn't been as a teenager, and she loved every minute of it. It was her getaway from reality, her light at the end of the tunnel.

There was only one person who kept Gabriella grounded. Her best friend, Troy Bolton. Troy, like her mother, wanted her to be good. But unlike her mother, he could relate to her actions. He understood what she was going through, and why she was doing the things she was doing. He'd been an unplanned mistake, as far as his parents were concerned. He was different from the other children his parents had produced. They hadn't wanted him. Yet there was one thing about Troy that Gabriella had not nearly begun to understand. Troy tried his best to make his parents love him, to make them proud of him. He played sports, got good grades, and, worst of all according to Gabriella, was still a virgin. He was basically an angel. An honest-to-goodness, down-to-earth, perfectly gorgeous angel.

Gabriella sighed, pulling her fuzzy pink blanket up around her shoulders. She'd locked herself in her bedroom for the evening, and she was hoping she would fall asleep before the clock struck midnight and it would officially be Christmas day. Christmas had never been a magical time for her, as she'd never gotten any real presents of any sort. Since she'd started working, she'd been saving her money to buy herself a puppy. She'd always secretly wanted one- a cute, friendly, loving purebred cocker spaniel. She'd known better than to ask for one, but she'd written about her longing for many years in her diaries. She would name her Duchess, and buy her a princess-pink leather collar, with real diamonds in it, and she would feed her only the best and richest food. She would groom her every morning and night, and bathe her in fruity bubble bath (if such a thing existed for dogs, anyway) and tie cute little bows in her ears. She would look just like Lady from _Lady and the Tramp_, except that she would be white and tan. She would be treated with the utmost care, the kind of care Gabriella hadn't received as a child.

She focused on closing her eyes, but just as she was closing them, she heard a familiar tune coming from her television. She turned her body toward it, and folded her hands against the pillow under her cheek as she watched the pictures move across the screen. It had been months since she'd watched this, her favorite show, and it was comforting to her as she settled peacefully into her old routine of lying in bed and watching hours upon hours of the show. She'd grown up rebelling against watching kiddie shows in favor of shows such as _Sex and the City_ or _Desperate Housewives_. But once she'd heard of the father-daughter show she now loved, she had felt a longing to see the relationship between the young popstar and her father. Most girls watched _Hannah Montana_ because Miley Stewart was a secret popstar, because she had everything they'd ever dreamed of having. But for Gabriella, Miley had only one thing she longed for- a father. She'd never known her father. She didn't know his name. She had no idea what he looked like, or what his occupation was, or what he did in his spare time. For all she knew, her father was a lanky drug addict that lived on the streets of New York City and begged for money to eat with. She closed her eyes as the tears pricked at her eyes, threatening to run over. She squeezed them shut, willing the tears to disappear. She didn't want to cry. Not tonight. Not on Christmas Eve.

A tap on the glass door that led to her balcony startled her. She quickly sat up, cracking her head against the headboard of her bed. "Shit," she murmured to herself. "Ow." She glanced over toward the door cautiously, ready to run for it if there happened to be a stranger there. A murderer, perhaps, or someone who wanted to kidnap her. Instead, she saw a pair of dark blue eyes staring at her through the glass. Her eyes wandered from the sea of blue to the smirk of amusement on her visitor's mouth. She grumbled a volley of four letter words under her breath as she stood up and walked over to open the door. "What are you doing?" she hissed as the figure stepped into her room. "It's practically midnight, you know."

"I know, calm down now." The male's voice soothed her growing anger. "It's Christmas Eve. I thought maybe you'd like some company, so here I am."

Gabriella sighed impatiently. "Well, you could have come over when it was oh, I don't know..._daylight_?"

"Ella, I come over after dark all the time."

"I don't care, you almost gave me a damn heart attack."

"Well, I'm sorry. Won't you forgive me?" He held out a large package, in hopes that the present would soften the blow.

Her eyes focused on his sparkling blue orbs for a moment and she sighed once again. It was difficult to stay mad at Troy for long. She silently cursed him for being so cute and irresistible. "I guess it can be arranged." She pursed her lips, eyeing the present unsurely. "What's this?"

Troy smiled. "It's your Christmas present. Aren't you going to open it?"

"It's not Christmas yet," she said firmly. "It won't be Christmas for another twenty-five minutes."

"It can't wait that long." His eyes were pleading with hers to open the gift. "It must be opened immediately. It took me a whole hour to get it wrapped properly."

Gabriella raised one eyebrow. "An hour? What kind of present takes an hour to wrap?"

"Open it and you'll see," he countered.

She sighed for the third time that night, finally breaking down and giving in. "Is there any certain place I have to be when I open it?"

He smirked slightly. "Nope. Right here's as good a place as any."

She smiled up at him before sitting down next to the insanely large box. "Have a seat, then," she replied. She carefully removed the ribbon from the package, placing it on the floor next to her. She figured she might need it to wrap the present she was going to buy him the day after Christmas. She noticed quickly that there were tiny holes in the top of the box, where a knife had obviously been used to punch through. Air holes? she thought to herself. Hmm. She looked up at Troy curiously. His foot was twitching nervously, and he used his hand to signal her to hurry up and remove the lid. "Troy, what is it?" she asked quietly.

"Take the lid off, you'll know immediately," he prompted.

She placed her hands on either side of the lid and lifted it slowly. She peered inside the box, and the tears came back to her eyes. This time, she let them fall. "Troy, how did you...I never told you about..." her words trailed off as her sobs overcame her. She reached inside the box and pulled out the sleeping puppy, cradling it gently in her arms. She cuddled it up against her chest, luring the small animal out of it's sleep. It whimpered slightly, but was soon sleeping soundly once again.

Troy was blushing. "I kind of read that you wanted one...in your...diary."

"You read my diary?" she accused incredulously.

He nodded sheepishly. "I wanted to get you the perfect gift, and...well, I figured since you wouldn't tell anyone what you wanted this year, that maybe you'd given your diary a clue. And I was right. It only took me five minutes to figure it out, look up a breeder online and get him on the phone. Of course, I kind of regretted it when I discovered that I had an eight hour drive ahead of me to retrieve her. But once I got her home, I knew I'd done the right thing."

"Oh, Troy...no one's ever gone through so much trouble for me. Thank you so much." She laid the puppy on the floor and scooted closer to him, embracing him tightly. "I love you."

Troy's ears perked up at those words. Maybe his mission wouldn't be so difficult after all. He'd planned everything out perfectly. He would buy her a present, take it to her, and beg for her to be his, all his. He'd been in love with her ever since the day they'd become friends. They'd had so much in common...it just seemed right to him that they end up together. However, since Gabriella was so hardheaded most of the time, he'd figured that it would take him weeks...months...maybe even years to get her to realize that they were perfect for each other. Hearing her say the words he'd longed to hear from her gave him courage, strength, and hope. "You do? I mean...you...you love...me?" he asked, carefully piecing together the words.

"You're my best friend, Troy. Of course I love you." She'd gone back to her place on the carpet and was now petting the dog gently. His heart fell. He'd known it was too good to be true. "Troy?" He looked up, realizing that she was confused. "You did know that I meant it that way, didn't you?"

"Uh...yeah," he replied. "I just...."

"Troy...I...you know that I can't love anyone in the other way. I'm not capable, nor am I worthy of that kind of love. I'm a heartbreaker, Troy." She'd begun crying again.

Troy moved so that he was sitting next to her, and he embraced her in his arms. "Now, Gabriella, I know better than that. You know better than that. You are one hundred percent worthy of finding and giving in to true love." He watched as her sobs grew harder, and he embraced her tighter. "Look...I know that you know that I love you in that way. I always have, and I know that you know that. There's no doubt in my mind that you know. I just want you to know that I love you for you, not for sex, and not for any other reason. I'm sure a lot of other guys would love you like that, too, if you'd give them the chance. I feel like the luckiest guy in the world just to be your best friend, Gabriella, but being your best friend just isn't enough for me anymore."

"Honestly, Troy, there's no sense in you wasting your time loving me," she mumbled after a few long moments of silence. "There truly isn't."

"But Gabriella, there _is_. Don't you see? I love you. More than anything or anyone else in this world, I love you. And I know that deep down, even though it may be deep deep down, you love me, too. I've seen it in your eyes, in your drawings, in the way you look at that handsome picture of me over there on your desk when you think I'm not looking." He smirked as he said this. "It's there somewhere, Gabriella. I just wish you would find it. I wish that you would love me as much as I love you."

Gabriella was staring at him now, her beautiful chocolate brown eyes large and innocent as she stared at him in surprise. "I...I do love you. I'm not sure if it's as much as you love me, but...." She paused, the knowledge that the words that would follow could change her life forever, entirely for better or for worse. She bit her lip and swallowed hard. "I know it's there, too. And if someone such as you were to care about and wait for someone such as me for so long, then it would be completely idiotic of me not to realize it." She pressed her lips against his momentarily and pulled back to look into his eyes. "If you're willing to wait for me to find that part of myself, then I'm willing to love you as much as I can until I've found her. You're the best thing that's ever happened to me, Troy Bolton."

Troy smiled and kissed her softly. "And you're the best thing that's ever happened to me," he replied earnestly.

Gabriella blushed now, as she remembered something. "I...I didn't get you a gift yet," she said, her eyes falling to the sleeping puppy on the floor.

"It's okay," he replied. "I've already gotten my present from you. And it's the best gift anyone's ever given to me."

"What's that?" she asked, looking up at him.

"You," he stated simply. "I couldn't have gotten a more perfect gift."

She giggled. "You do realize that's it's not official until I find the other part of myself, right?" she asked.

"I know," he replied. "But this part will do for now." He kissed her nose, and moved his lips down to meet hers. She deepened the kiss almost immediately, placing her hands on his shoulders and pressing herself against him. When air became a necessity, she pulled away and stood up, tugging him toward her bed. Words were not needed, she only had to look into his eyes for the approval to continue her ministrations. She pushed him on the bed gently, his head landing on the pillows with a low '_poof_'. Her lips found his once again, and the kiss picked up where it had left off. She could feel his hands grazing the small of her back, and she moaned ever so slightly as they wandered down to rest on her butt. She rested her hands against his chest as she pushed up to look down at him, and she giggled at the goofy grin that had formed on his lips.

"This isn't even the beginning of it," she whispered as she leaned down to brush her lips against the skin of his neck. She had to take the lead; he'd never done this before. He was a virgin, and she wanted to make his first time memorable. She sat up again, her fingers moving toward the buttons on his shirt. "You okay?" she asked. He only nodded. "I'm glad," she continued as she finished unbuttoning the shirt. "I promise you'll enjoy yourself tonight." She pushed the shirt away from his chest and ran her hands down slowly, tracing each crevice of his abdomen before she weaved the shirt away from his body. "I never noticed how incredibly sexy you were until now," she whispered, her fingers moving down to the button on his jeans. As soon as the button was out of the way, she pulled the zipper down and slid his pants down, revealing the tent that had formed in his boxers. "Somebody's excited," she said, giggling as she grasped him softly through the silky material. Troy grunted in response, unable to speak. "Hold still," she warned as she reached inside his boxers and grasped him once more. He hardened instantly when he felt her dainty fingers squeezing his most private posession. He gasped when her hand started moving up and down in fluent motions, her fingers occasionally squeezing and loosening as she did so. It took only a few minutes of this before he released his cum into her hand, and about thirty seconds for him to become hard again as he watched her lift her hand to her mouth and let the liquid slide into her mouth.

"Gabriella," he finally managed to groan out.

"Yes?" she asked innocently. She'd begun to undress herself, and she now sat on top of him in only her black lace panties, straddling his waist. He could feel how wet she was through the lace, and this turned him on even more. She stood up enough to shimmy her panties down to her ankles, and she kicked them off without a care in the world where they landed. She straddled him again, and she placed her hands firmly on his abdomen as she rubbed against him. She slowly lowered herself onto him, gasping quietly when she felt him inside of her.

"I love you," he whispered, for a whisper was all that he was capable of. He bucked his hips in time with her motions, and soon he'd managed to flip them over so that he was on top. He started pumping into her at a semi-slow rate, getting turned on just a little bit more with each gasp and moan that elicited from her lips. She eventually begged for him to quicken his pace, and delve deeper into her, a request that was granted immediately. It didn't take long before the pair reached their peaks, and as Gabriella saw the burst of stars behind her eyelids as pleasure overtook her, she knew that she'd found the part of her that had been missing. It was there, within her reach. She could see it. She could grasp it between her fingers, and in the literal sense of that phrase, she grasped two large handfuls of Troy's hair and chanted his name simultaneously. Troy, completely unaware of her discovery, slowed his pace, thrusting slowly, but deeply, as he released his seed into her.

As the young pair laid next to each other, trying to regain their breath, the almost forgotten puppy jumped up next to them and licked their faces, making them laugh together. The puppy yelped in delight and snuggled underneath the covers, between the two lovebirds. When Gabriella had recollected her full breathing capacity, she turned to look at Troy. "Troy, I found her. I found the other part of me. And she loves you just as much as you love her. She loves you, Troy, she loves you, I love you." She beamed with her revelation, and Troy grinned widely. She leaned in to kiss him. "I'm glad I found myself, and I'm glad that you were right." She cuddled up against his chest, in the meanwhile catching a glimpse of the clock. "Oh, and by the way," she said, pausing for him to look into her eyes. "Merry Christmas."

Troy smiled and replied, "Merry Christmas, Gabriella." He was quiet for a moment. "Ella?"

"Yes, Troy?"

"Will you be my girlfriend?"

She giggled. "Of course I will, Troy." For the first time ever, she felt like someone truly did love her, and that lifted her spirits more than any other thing in the world. All it took for her to find herself was just a little bit of encouragement from her one true love. She'd gotten both of her wishes granted that night, and she silently thanked a higher power for making every dream she'd ever had come true as she lay with Troy, on the verge of sleep. After all, all it had taken was an angel's touch for her to become whole and for her life to fill with happiness. The angel's name? Why, Troy Bolton, of course.

* * *

**THE END.**

I have accomplished three things with that story. Firstly, that was definitely the longest oneshot I've ever written. Secondly, it has to be my favorite out of everything I've ever written. And thirdly, I've practically perfected making my M-rated scenes more M-rated. ;) I hope you enjoyed the story! Please let me know what you think of it? Be nice, though, remember that my feelings are easily hurt. Oh, yes, I'm sorry for any typos, etc. I've been informed that I don't need a beta, but sometimes mistakes just happen, right? ;)


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